COMPLETE SET OF MAISON NICOLAS HISTORIES OF THE WINE REGIONS, ILLUSTRATED BY MAJOR FRENCH ARTISTS, 1924-27

MONTORGUEIL, Georges. Monseigneur le Vin. (Paris: Van Gindertaele; Poyet; Draeger), 1924-27. Five volumes. Square octavo, original marbled faux suede paper wrappers, original glassines. Housed together in a custom clamshell box. $2600.

Complete set of this five-volume series of popular histories of French wines, published by Maison Nicolas and wonderfully illustrated with numerous in-text color lithographs by contemporary French artists, folding maps and charts.

The Établissements Nicolas, a famous Parisian wine distributor, was founded in 1822. The first to sell wine by the bottle and the first to offer a complete range of French and local wines, Nicolas helped to foster Parisian interest in fine wines. Known for their cutting edge advertising campaigns, Nicolas came up with the idea of employing prominent artists to design their catalogues and other publications. The idea took first root in Monseigneur le Vin. This is a complete set, beginning with Le Vin è Travers l'Histoire; Le Vin de Bordeaux; Le Vin de Bourgogne; Anjou-Touraine, Alsace, Champagne et Autres Grands Vins de France and ending with L'Art de Boire. The series not only documents the history and techniques of the wine-producing regions of France and provides extensive information on the production and drinking of wines, but also represents a contemporary French popular taste in art— with illustrations by Marcel Jeanjean, Pierre Lissac, Armand Vallée, Carlègle and Charles Martin. In 1928 the Maison Nicolas series evolved into illustrated annual catalogues, each year containing pictures by a different contemporary French artist. Text in French.

A fine set, with only a loss to spine head of Volume I and edge-wear to scarce glassines.